Bus fears
When I was between the ages of 12-16 there was the problem of pulling the bell, which meant asking the bus to stop, which meant calling attention to myself. I prayed that someone else would want my stop, would pull the bell, would save me from having to stand up and be noticed. Sometimes I missed my stop.
Taking a new bus I am sometimes afraid the bus won’t do what it is supposed to do: follow its route, stop where I need it to. I watch for street signs and indications of which direction we are going and hope strenuously for the best.
Preparations
Pirouettes. That clutching at the back of my neck that said: THIS TIME it wouldn’t work. Even though it usually did work, sometimes effortlessly. Best those couple times when I’d been off for a week with fever and flu and came back floating and insubstantial and nothing was real.
Impossible repetitions
The time one minute before I was about to go out and perform a new solo for the 2nd night of the run and a guy I had never seen before knocked on the dressing room door and said:
“Just wanted to say that I loved your piece last night. I thought it was a perfect dance. Really looking forward to tonight!”
Conjugations
One day all the verbs fly off my tongue correctly conjugated and then the next day I am talking to someone’s elegant grandmother and I am 16 and I can’t remember the formal ‘you’.
Writing prompts: stories in 61 words or less.
Phobias or irrational fears by age: 5, 10, 15, 25
An impossible request
Making progress
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